T-Mobile in the UK
The carrier has a network presence in nine European countries outside of the UK and its headquarters in Germany. These are Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia, Just as a side note, the "T" in it corporate branding stands for "Telekom" the German equivalent to the more common term.A Short History
It was in July 1992 when Deutsche Telekom established its GSM network in the 900 MHz operating frequency and started creating a subsidiary for the emerging mobile phone markets called DeTeMobil and started branding its products with the T prefix starting in 1996.
The GSM network expanded and was named T-D1 and the DeTeMobil Company became T-Mobil which now has various presence in other key European cities. In 2002, Deutsche Telekom consolidated its international presence and anglicized the T-Mobil name to become what is now T-Mobile.
In the UK, a GSM mobile network operating in the 1800 MHz territory came into being in 1993. It was the Mercury One2One managed by the now-defunct Mercury Communications. It had a rather bumpy history changing hands from a joint venture between Cable and Wireless and the US-based Mediaone Group until it eventually got purchased by the cash-rich Deutsch Telekom in 1999. It was rebranded in 2002 into what we know today as T-Mobile UK. The rest, as they say, is history.
Looking To The Future
After being a leading exponent in the growth of UK"s mobile telephony landscape with products that have defined what mobile phone users now enjoy such as 3G high speed data connectivity with its Total Internet Add-On feature for people subscribing to its mobile phone coverage as well as high speed wireless hotspots around the country, the carrier won"t be around for much more than 18 months since its merger with France Telecom"s UK operations under the Orange brand was announced last April 1st.
With official word as early as September in 2009 and rumours about it for the last year before the, the merger is expected to create synergies and economies of scale in operating and marketing the GSM services of both UK operations. Some network divestments will close down redundant network coverage which is expected to maximize current network investments that could potentially lower its tariff rates while allow new investments and services to harness new telephony technologies at more affordable prices than without the merger.
The merger is expected to result in a company with a net present value well over ð‚¤3.5 billion with an annual gross sales turnover of ð‚¤7.7 billion. With a combined customer base in excess of 28 million, the new company topples O2 as the largest mobile network provider in the UK.
The largest mobile phone network provider in Germany is T-Mobile, the mobile services arm of its leading telecommunications provide Deutsche Telekom. It is also one of the world"s largest GSM network providers in 2G and 3G with more than 148 million subscribers worldwide.